Samsung Galaxy Tab Redefined: BlackBerry, Samsung Collaborate To Make A Secure Tablet


BlackBerry is responsible for the new super secure version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Just when users thought that BlackBerry was so seven years ago, the company makes a comeback in a big way. Samsung and BlackBerry collaborated to create the SecuTABLET.

This tablet is based on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, says the Street Insider. It runs the latest Android operating system, but what’s important about this tablet is that it is built specifically for world leaders and government agencies. It uses the same anti-surveillance technology that’s on the Secusmart Security Card’s encrypted voice and messaging used by German Chancellor Angela Markel.

BlackBerry is not the only brain behind this high-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab. IBM also jumped on the ship to help create this tablet. Stefan Hefter, IBM Germany spokesperson, explained what this Galaxy Tab can do for world leaders and government officials.

“Organizations deploying the SecuTABLET will be able to set policies controlling what apps can run on the devices, and whether those apps must be wrapped.

“The wrapping process – in which an app is downloaded from a public app store, bundled with additional libraries that encrypt its network traffic and intercept Android ‘intents’ for actions such as cutting or pasting data, then uploaded to a private app store – ensures that corporate data can be protected at rest, in motion and in use.

“For instance, it can prevent data from a secure email being copied and pasted into the Facebook app running on the same device – yet allow it to be pasted into a secure collaboration environment, or any other app forming part of the same ‘federation.'”

How secure is this version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab?

ZDNet contributor Sean Portnoy writes, “As proof of just how secure the SecuTABLET aims to be, the German Federal Office for Information Security is currently putting it through its certification process to grant it a classified-level security rating.”

Though this tablet is not yet on the market, it does cost more than most Android tablets on the market. Mashable says that this Samsung Galaxy Tab is well worth its weight in gold. The contributor writes that “for the global organization BlackBerry is targeting, safeguarding high-stakes data is often well worth the cost.”

The SecuTABLET, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab, can be used to secure sensitive information and can run everyday apps like Facebook and Twitter, says the Motley Fool. Of course, you would have to pay $2,380 to use it. That’s five times more than the Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

This isn’t the first time that BlackBerry dipped its toe in the tablet market. In 2011, the company launched the PlayBook to compete with Apple’s iPad, but the device failed miserably. It only sold 2.5 million tablets in the two years it was released. Apple’s iPad sold 90.7 million tablets in both 2011 and 2012. Making a secure version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab seems like a good idea for the struggling technology manufacturer.

BlackBerry said last Saturday that they’re currently awaiting on the security certification for its classified data from the German Federal Office for Information Security. The team plans to debut the Samsung Galaxy Tab, uh, the SecuTABLET, at the CeBIT 2015 event in Germany.

[Image: Samsung]

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